About “Any Eventuality”

The name of this blog comes from Amazing Spider-Man #260, written by Tom DeFalco and pencilled by Ron Frenz. At one point in the story, Spider-Man thinks he has subdued the Hobgoblin but the villain has a trick up his sleeve and escapes to fight another day, boasting: “The Hobgoblin is prepared for any eventuality!”

I was four years old at the time of the January 1985 cover date and I re-read the issue a hundred times while growing up, as its poor condition can attest. I learned to read from my parents and comic books. Old comics can be criticized for their arch dialogue — especially supervillains’ dubious fondness for multisyllables — but I can’t criticize them for expanding my vocabulary at a young age while simultaneously cultivating an enjoyment of reading in those crucial years of my education.

So “Any Eventuality” is a tribute both to a particular comic book that was influential in my early life, and to the love of language that it instilled which, unbeknownst to me at the time, would ultimately develop into my present vocation as a teacher, and lifelong student, of literature in all of its forms.